Viceroyalty Office in Venezuela

The Trump administration is working toward reopening the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela. This is worth paying attention to. There are no U.S. troops in Venezuela, or if they're there secretly they certainly do not constitute an occupying force. Imposition of U.S. will by remote control is going to be tricky and around the world, the embassy (and the ambassador) have been at the center of political control. Orders come from the ambassador.

As Ambassador Early Smith once said of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba:

    Whenever I asked President Batista for Cuba's vote to support the United States in the United Nations,        he would instruct his Foreign Minister to have the Cuban delegation vote in accordance with the United     States delegation and to give full support to the American delegation at the United Nations.

This is the sort of enterprise that takes time. There has been no ambassador since 2010 and no staff since 2019. But it is also the sort of enterprise that can be done quickly if you force it on the country and don't care about things going smoothly for a while.